Egypt's planning Minister Hala El-Saeed said on Thursday the country's workforce is expected to reach 31.7 million people during financial year 2019/2020 from 30.9 million in financial year 2018/2019, a 2.6 percent increase. The minister added that the plan, which targets a growth rate of 3.2 percent, involves measures to encourage heavy-labour projects to decrease unemployment rates. These include increasing funding from the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency to 5.6 billion pounds at the end of financial year 2019/2020, compared to 5 billion pounds in financial year 2018/2019, an increase of 12 percent. El-Saeed said SMEs are expected to provide around 376,000 job opportunities during the financial year 2019/2020, compared to 342,000 job opportunities in the financial year 2018/2019, rising by 9.9 percent. The plan also involves adopting incentive programmes to encourage the informal sector to merge into the formal one, she said. El-Saeed added that the plan aims to activate the role of the non-banking financial sector in providing micro-financing, in addition to providing leasing and finance services for SMEs and boosting mechanisms that help spread the entrepreneurial culture and support exports. Source: Ahram Online
